LibriVox recording of The Sea-Witch by Maturin Murray Ballou

Maturin Murray Ballou was the author of dozens of books, chiefly centered around his extensive sea travel. He was deputy navy-agent in the Boston Custom House and circumnavigated in 1882, collecting material for several travel accounts and various nautical romances, amongst which The Sea-Witch can be counted. (Summary by Gesine)

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M4B format available


This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Maturin Murray Ballou
Date: 2009-03-30
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: fiction; sea stories; romance; sea witch; ballou; audio books; librivox

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: alamedared - - May 16, 2010
Subject: LOVED IT
I loved this, but anything about the sea is my cup of nautical tea!

Reviewer: Sorker - - May 12, 2010
Subject: Bad Book can't be helped
Book Stars = 2 (generous at that)
Readers Stars = 3 (ranging from 2 to 5)
Technical Stars = 3 (the usual overmic’d “S” hiss and other noises)

Ballou spewed out 18 novels from 1845-50. You've heard nothing of his other 17 and the world would be better had not this one inexplicably endured. This book shows that his approach was volume with tabloid quality. Thin, linear plot, flat characters, little detail of interest; it's a bad B-movie script. Two brothers (one good, the other evil), two young women (one white, rich and sappily pure; the other mixed-race, vengeful, evil). The dialog and pretense are quintessential Victorian “crud”. It is obliviously racist and imperialist. I won't "ruin" the story for you but don't expect literature or interest.

To all readers: Thank you for volunteering.
I say this in support of your efforts.
Because the words are provided you, it is natural for you to concentrate on your style of delivery rather than vocabulary. However, the Librivox system requires you to self-edit, which is difficult but essential. Your effort's quality can be greatly improved with just a few minutes of online pronunciation checking. In this ensemble reading, we have errors in, for example, "ascertain", "tryst", "draught", and several more 9th grade words, as well as in nautical words forecastle, bows, mainsail, topsail, staysail, foresail, and topgallant.